infantry, who unbuttoning his undress frock towards the close of the feast would sit smoking and sipping his coffee as if unwilling to desert the field, a grave long-haired professor, and perhaps an officer of the excise waiting for the re-opening of the custom-house, would form the company. But even these dropped off at last, and with a deep bow to mine host passed away to their homes or their haunts. Meanwhile the waiters hurried hither and thither, the cloth was removed, in its place a fresh one was spread, and all the preliminaries for a new dinner were set about with the same activity as before. The napkins enclosed in their little horn cases, the decanters of beer, the small dishes of preserved fruit, without which no Dutchman dines, were all set forth, and the host, without stirring from his seat, sat watching the preparations with calm complacency. Were you to note him narrowly, you could perceive that his eyes alternately opened and shut, as if relieving guard, save which he gave no other sign of life; nor even at last, when the mighty stroke of three rang out from the cathedral, and the hurrying sound of many feet proclaimed the arrival of the guests of the second table, did he ever exhibit the slightest show or mark of attention, but sat calm and still and motionless.

For the next two hours it was merely a repetition of the performance which preceded it, in which the host's part was played with untiring energy, and all the items of soup, fish, bouilli, fowl, pork, and vegetables had not to complain of any inattention to their merits, or any undue preference for their predecessors of an hour before. If the traveller was astonished at his appetite during the first table, what would he say to his feats at the second! As for myself, I honestly confess I thought that some harlequin-trick was concerned, and that mine host of the Schwein Kopf was not a real man, but some mechanical contrivance by which, with a trap-door below him, a certain portion of the dinner was conveyed to the apartments beneath. I lived, however, to discover my error; and after four visits to Rotterdam, I was at length so far distinguished as actually to receive an invitation to pass an evening with Mynheer in his own private den, which, I need scarcely say, I gladly accepted.

I have a note of that evening somewhere—ay, here it is:

:

"Mynheer is waiting supper," said a waiter to me, as I sat smoking my cigar one calm evening in autumn in the porch of the Schwein Kopf. I followed the man through a long passage, which, leading to the kitchen, emerged on the opposite side, and conducted us through a little garden to a small summer-house. The building, which was of wood, was painted in gaudy stripes of red, blue, and yellow, and made in some sort to resemble those Chinese pagodas we see upon a saucer. Its situation was con

ceived in the most perfect Dutch taste. One side, flanked by the little garden of which I have spoken, displayed a rich bed of tulips and ranunculuses, in all the gorgeous luxuriance of perfect culture, it was a mass of blended beauty and perfume superior to anything I have ever witnessed; on the other flank lay the sluggish, green-coated surface of a Dutch canal, from which rose the noxious vapors of a hot evening and the harsh croakings of ten thousand frogs, "fat, gorbellied knaves," the very burgomasters of their race, who squatted along the banks, and who, except for the want of pipes, might have been mistaken for small Dutchmen enjoying an evening's promenade. This building was denominated "Lust und Rust," which in letters of gold was displayed on something resembling a sign-board above the door, and intimated to the traveller that the temple was dedicated to pleasure and contentment. To a Dutchman, however, the sight of the portly figure who sat smoking at the open window was a far more intelligible illustration of the objects of the building than any lettered inscription. Mynheer Hoogendorp, with his long Dutch pipe, and tall flagon with its shining brass lid, looked the concentrated essence of a Hollander, and might have been hung out as a sign of the country from the steeple of Haarlem.

The interior was in perfect keeping with the designation of the building. Every appliance that could suggest ease, if not sleep, was there. The chairs were deep, plethoriclooking Dutch chairs, that seemed as if they had led a sedentary life, and throve upon it; the table was a short thick-legged one, of dark oak, whose polished surface

reflected the tall brass cups and the ample features of Mynheer, and seemed to hobnob with him when he lifted. the capacious vessel to his lips; the walls were decorated with quaint pipes, whose large porcelain bowls bespoke them of home origin, and here and there a sea-fight, with a Dutch three-decker hurling destruction on the enemy. But the genius of the place was its owner, who in a low fur cap and slippers, whose shape and size might have drawn tears of envy from the Ballast Board, sat gazing upon the canal in a state of Dutch rapture, very like apoplexy. He motioned me to a chair without speaking; he directed me to a pipe, by a long whiff of smoke from his own; he grunted out a welcome, and then, as if overcome by such unaccustomed exertion, he lay back in his chair, and sighed deeply.

We smoked till the sun went down, and a thicker haze, rising from the stagnant ditch, joined with the tobacco vapor, made an atmosphere like mud reduced to gas. Through the mist I saw a vision of soup-tureens, hot meat, and smoking vegetables. I beheld as though Mynheer moved among the condiments, and I have a faint dreamy recollection of his performing some feat before me, — but whether it was carving, or the sword exercise, I won't be positive.

Now, though the schiedam was strong, a spell was upon me, and I could not speak; the great green eyes that glared on me through the haze seemed to chill my very soul; and I drank, out of desperation, the deeper. As the evening wore on, I waxed bolder; I had looked upon the Dutchman so long that my awe of him began to subside, and I at last grew bold enough to address him. I remember well that it was pretty much with that kind of energy, that semidesperation, with which a man nerves himself to accost a spectre, that I ventured on addressing him. How or in what terms I did it, Heaven knows! Some trite every-day observation about his great knowledge of life, his wonderful experience of the world, was all I could muster; and when I had made it, the sound of my own voice terrified me so much that I finished the can at a draught, to reanimate my courage.

"Ja, Ja!" said Van Hoogendorp, in a cadence as solemn as the bell of the cathedral; "I have seen many strange

things; I remember what few men living can remember. I mind well the time when the Hollandische Vrow' made her first voyage from Batavia, and brought back a paroquet for the burgomaster's wife. The great trees upon the Boomjes were but saplings when I was a boy; they were not thicker than my waist," here he looked down upon himself with as much complacency as though he were a sylph. "Ach Gott! they were brave times; schiedam cost only half a guilder the krug."

I waited in hopes he would continue, but the glorious retrospect he had evoked seemed to occupy all his thoughts, and he smoked away without ceasing.

"You remember the Austrians, then ?" said I, by way of drawing him on.

"They were dogs," said he, spitting out.

"Ah," said I, "the French were better, then ?"

"Wolves!" ejaculated he, after glowering on me fearfully.

There was a long pause after this; I perceived that I had taken a wrong path to lead him into conversation, and he was too deeply overcome with indignation to speak. During this time, however, his anger took a thirsty form, and he swigged away at the schiedam most manfully.

The effect of his libations became at last evident; his great green stagnant eyes flashed and flared, his wide nostrils swelled and contracted, and his breathing became short and thick, like the convulsive sobs of a steam-engine when they open and shut the valves alternately. I watched these indications for some time, wondering what they might portend, when at length he withdrew his pipe from his mouth, and with such a tone of voice as he might have used if confessing a bloody and atrocious murder, he said,

"I will tell you a story."

Had the great stone figure of Erasmus beckoned to me across the market-place, and asked me the news "on Change," I could not have been more amazed; and not venturing on the slightest interruption, I refilled my pipe, and nodded sententiously across the table, while he thus began.

CHAPTER III.

MINE HOST'S TALE.

"It was in the winter of the year 1806, the first week of December; the frost was setting in, and I resolved to pay a visit to my brother, whom I had n't seen for forty years: he was burgomaster of Antwerp. It is a long voyage and a perilous one, but with the protection of Providence our provisions held out; and on the fourth night after we sailed, a violent shock shook the vessel from stem to stern, and we found ourselves against the quay of Antwerp.

"When I reached my brother's house I found him in bed, sick; the doctors said it was a dropsy. I don't know how that might be, for he drank more gin than any man in Holland, and hated water all his life. We were twins; but no one would have thought so, I looked so thin and meagre beside him.

"Well, as I was there, I resolved to see the sights of the town; and the next morning, after breakfast, I set out by myself, and wandered about till evening. Now, there were many things to see, very strange things too. The noise and the din and the bustle addled and confused me; the people were running here and there, shouting as if they were mad, and there were great flags hanging out of the windows, and drums beating; and, stranger than all, I saw little soldiers with red breeches and red shoulder-knots, running about like monkeys.

"What is all this?' said I, to a man near me.

"Methinks,' said he, 'the burgomaster himself might well know what it is.'

"I am not the burgomaster,' quoth I; 'I am his brother, and only came from Rotterdam yesterday.' "Ah, then,' said another, with a strange grin, didn't know these preparations were meant to your arrival?'